April 15, 2014 Dear Alumni, We’re sure you have seen the emails and mailings on all of the wonderful things

that we are doing at Belmead. We are in the process of planning for the future,

which will include additional STEM programs so that we can once again be in the business of educating young people and giving them a good start on the rest of

their lives, much like we were given at the “Castle” and at St. Emma. Please

remember all of the positive things we learned and how that led to the many

blessings we have today. Think also of how we, as parents, may have used

what we learned in Powhatan to develop our own children; thus helping to form strong foundations of their own. There is much more to be done on the property. To that end, FrancisEmma, Inc.

(FEI) is bringing the play, “Lady Patriot,” from California to Richmond, Virginia

during Memorial Day weekend, as a fundraiser. While we hope alumni who live in the New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C. and Richmond metropolitan areas will support this effort by attending the play, we know that for lots of folks this will not be possible. Here is what we would like you to do. Help our fundraising effort by contributing directly to FEI, Inc. Bottom line, your contribution is 100% tax deductible to you (any amount is welcomed) and will help us to continue to develop the property and programs that will help this new generation of young people to succeed. Please make out your check to: FrancisEmma, Inc. and mail it to: Sister Maureen T. Carroll, Executive Director FrancisEmma, Inc. 5004 Cartersville Road Powhatan, Virginia 23139 Sincerely, Patricia C. Gunn, Esq. (SFDS '68) Dr. Irving McConnell, (SEMA '69) Pat McEaddy Seals, (SFDS '68)

Lange’s ‘Lady Patriot’ a wonderful surprise Lynn Felder/Special Correspondent | Posted: Wednesday, July 31, 2013 10:23 pm

“Lady Patriot,” written and directed by Ted Lange, is a wonderful surprise awaiting

audiences at the National Black Theatre Festival.

It opened Tuesday at Hanesbrands Theatre in Winston Salem, North Carolina and played

Wednesday afternoon to a standing ovation.

Playwright and director Lange came onstage

before the show to welcome the audience

members and assure us that the events

depicted in the show were true. The Internet

backs him up.

“Lady Patriot” is the story of Mary Bowser,

a freed slave and unlikely spy in the

Jefferson Davis White House who helped to

bring down the Confederacy with her

intelligence work.

Chrystee Pharris gives a luminous

performance in the title role. Her character’s

ability to blend into the background is what

gives her an advantage while gathering

intelligence, but Pharris would only ever fade into the woodwork if she chose to. She has

star-quality presence.

When Pharris says with passion, “Once you taste freedom, you want everybody to drink

from that bowl,” you will want to stand and cheer. Go for it.

Pharris’s Mary is lively but subtle and especially engaging in her scenes with her

“mistress,” the “crazy” Elizabeth Van Lew, and with her unwitting co-conspirator, Old

Robert.

Lou Beatty Jr. is marvelous as Old Robert, who seamlessly goes from being Jefferson

Davis’ dutiful servant to his convivial confidante. Beatty’s face is perfectly expressive,

one moment pulled down by gravity and weariness, the next lifted up and as bright as the

sun. It won’t be giving away too much to say that he has the last laugh, and it is

wonderful.

Jefferson Davis’ wife, Varina, played by Anne Johnstonbrowne, is the scariest character

in the ensemble – or maybe in any ensemble. An absinthe-swilling bigot, she makes

Archie Bunker look like a liberal. Pampered and cosseted as she is, Varina has her share

of issues, not the least of which is being that she is more or less constantly pregnant, and

her husband is still in love with his dead first wife.

Gordon Goodman’s Jefferson Davis is a dashing monster, conniving and charming by

turns. By the end of the war, which coincides with the end of the play, Davis is hopeless

and lost, but his arrogance and delusion keep him going. His relationships with his

Secretary of War Judah P. Benjamin, played by Paul Messinger, and with Old Robert are

some of the most interesting in the show. He has sold off Old Robert’s beloved wife and

children, and he still has the gall to ask the freedman to take care of Varina and the Davis

children when he retreats from Richmond.

Benjamin, a Jew, is as devoted to the South as Davis is, but he at least knows when the

cause is lost. Messinger’s Benjamin is somewhat sympathetic, a survivor in a sea of

intolerance.

Connie Ventress is convincing as the crazy-like-a-fox Elizabeth. She is seductive with

Slydell, the journalist played by Robert Pine, motherly in her scenes with Pharris, and

dotty in her scenes with Johnstonbrowne.

Pine and Johnstonbrowne have a devastating scene toward the end of the show. Varina is

under house arrest as a traitor in Savannah, and Slydell is interviewing her for the New

York Tribune.

Pine is appealing on stage, and he gets to make a powerful speech that summarizes the

play’s main themes. At a high point, Slydell tells the absinthe-addled Varina, “Whether

you like it or not, America is changing. Whether you like it or not, America is becoming

a stronger nation. … a nation with liberty and justice for ALL.”